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Personal View: Grocery Order works for shoppers

A DEBATE about the sort of country in which we want to live is about to get underway. It will centre on a government order that has been in place since 1987. The controversial part of the Restrictive Practices Order — or Groceries Order as is it more commonly known — is the ban on the practice of below-cost selling.

The case made for the removal of the ban is that it would allow retailers to sell food to consumers at a price that is lower than it pays its suppliers. From a consumer’s perspective

this might appear attractive. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch and supermarkets are not in the charity business. On that basis our instinct should prompt us to ask how this can be done. The answer? It can’t — and won’t be.

What will happen is that the retailer will not pay suppliers an economic